The present invention relates to a micro reactor for use in a macro fluid device system.
At present, techniques in which reaction, separation, and analysis are carried out by use of a very small amount of solution, have been popular. These techniques include using a micro reactor, a chemical chip, a bio chip, a lab-on-a-chip, and a nano-chip.
Particularly, there has been proposed a technique using a micro reactor for carrying out a large number of biochemical reactions in parallel (see JP-A-10-337173).
This type of the micro reactor is used to conduct chemical reaction experiments in the micro technology field, the development of drugs, the development of artificial internal organs, and is used as a genome/DNA analysis tool, a basic analysis tool of micro fluid engineering and the like.
For the chemical reaction in which the micro reactor is used, for example, since the apparatus itself is quite compact, the apparatus is, as a whole, remarkably high in the thermal efficiency. Therefore, this type of the reactor has such an advantage that the control of temperature can easily be done in a reaction requiring such temperature control. Thus, the temperature control can easily be done even in reactions requiring a precise temperature control, or those requiring a rapid heating or cooling.
Moreover, for the micro reactor, the reaction is carried out in a micro space. For example, in either a liquid/liquid interface between an organic solvent and water or a solid/liquid interface between a liquid and an apparatus wall, a ratio of an area of the interface is very large as compared with a volume of the liquid. Therefore, a movement speed of a molecule is high, and a heterogenous reaction can be carried out with good efficiency.
Furthermore, in the case of the micro reactor, a sample for use in the reaction (reaction reagent, sample or the like) can be reduced in amount and cost since the capacity of the reactor (reaction vessel) is quite minute. Thus, the impact on the environment can be reduced since the reaction scale can be reduced to such an extent of the detection limit of the product.
The major outer shape of the micro-reactor can be formed by merely bonding, with the use of ultrasonic bonding, thermal bonding, press boding, chemical boding, or the like, a substrate on which at least one channel (flow path) and at least a reactor (reaction vessel) are formed to a separately prepared substrate in which at least one injection port, at least one discharge port and the like for a solution are formed.
At this time, the substrates are usually formed of inorganic materials such as silicon, quartz glass, borosilicate glass, and ceramic, or organic materials such as plastics inclusive of polycarbonate, polyacrylamide and the like, silicone rubbers, silicone resins, and the like.
Moreover, a predetermined number of the micro channels (flow path) and/or the reactors (reaction vessel) is formed on the substrate by chemical treatments such as dry etching and wet etching, or energy ray treatments such as laser, atom beam, and ion beam. Furthermore, in the case that the micro reactor is made of plastic, the substrate can be also produced by the injection molding method wherein a molten resin is injected into a mold having a predetermined number of the convex portions corresponding to the channels to be formed. The width of each channel (flow path) may vary, depending upon the application field thereof, but is usually within about 40 to 500 μm. However, one may sometimes employ the width of from about 2 to 40 μm for the micro channels, depending upon its application field or the like. It is to be noted that the depth of the channel (flow path) is usually within a range of from 0.6 to 500 μm.
As described above, since the volumetric size of the channel (flow path) or the reactor (reaction vessel) is quite minute, the special precautions are required when the molecules are handled, compared with the case wherein the molecules are handled in the usual reaction container. For example, in case of the micro reactors conventionally used, a sample solution is mainly fed to the channel(s) (flow path(s)) or the reactor(s) (reaction vessel(s)) by the solution feeding means such as a micro pump, electro-phoresis and the like. However, it is difficult to control precisely and rapidly the flow rate of the solution feeding means, and increase or decrease precisely and rapidly the discharge amount of a sample solution and the like. This is because the minute and complicated channels are provided in the case of the micro reactors conventionally used. Especially, when the conventional micro pump is used practically, one often faces to such a difficulty that the resonance frequency of the pump cannot be sufficiently raised, wobbles easily occur during the operation in the pump structure, or the like. This is because the rigidity of the pump structure is not sufficiently high since the driving section of the pump is made independently from the cavity section for the pump. Therefore, when the solution in the channels, or the solid as the case may be, is transported or vibrated (generically driven), the transport of the solution can not be performed at a high speed, or the vibration of the solid at a high frequency.
Moreover, when a plurality of solution feeding means are integrated in the micro reactor, the required number of solution feeding means are individually attached. Therefore, there have been problems that an integration ratio is not high and that productivity is poor.
The present invention has been made in view of the problems mentioned above. Thus, the object thereof is to provide a micro reactor superior in the productivity and the usability for the general use. The micro reactor may be manufactured by preparing the micro pump unit being provided with an integrally formed plural number of micro pumps superior in discharging force into the channels (flow paths) and being capable of instantly controlling feeding/receiving of a solution with precise accuracy, and a reactor unit mainly provided with a plural number of the channels (flow paths), a plural number of the reactors (reaction vessels) including injection ports, and discharge ports, independently; and laminate-bonding them each other to obtain the micro reactor.